HTC Ville shows its Android 4, Sense 4 face (video)

The forthcoming HTC Ville has made a 3-minute video debut online, revealing a great deal about the incoming Android 4, Sense 4 handset.

Although the specs have previously been rumoured and we've seen images of the new Android handset, the video leaves little to the imagination.

First up you have the design. It looks a lot like the renderings previously released, although this being an HTC handset, there aren't too many surprises as the company tends to stick to the same designs. It certainly appears to be slim though, and using the typical unibody design with inserted panels top and bottom to ensure good reception and allow access to the internals.

All the connections appear to be in normal places, the standby and 3.5mm headphone jack on the top, volume on the right and Micro-USB on the left. Perhaps more interesting is the three touch controls across the bottom of the phone, losing the menu button, as per Ice Cream Sandwich on the Galaxy Nexus.

This is a new version of HTC Sense too. The details from the software information later in the video reveal it to be HTC Sense 4.0 and Android 4.0.1, so it looks like HTC are making the right moves in software too.

HTC Sense 4.0 appears to have dealt with one of our biggest bugbears and that's the antiquated homescreen dock. Now you have two shortcuts either side of a central app tray button, very much like stock Android 4.

Diving into the settings, however, you get to see a nice panel effect rather than a straight list and the animation looks kind of cool. There are obvious differences in the app tray too, so it looks like HTC have run in some changes as you'd expect. Whether these are for better or worse, we'll have to wait until we can do an HTC Sense 4.0 review ourselves.

Fortunately we also get to see the hardware information page which reveals the HTC Ville to offer a 4.3-inch QHD (960 x 540) display, 1.5GHz dual core processor, 1GB RAM, 8-megapixel main camera and VGA front camera and Bluetooth 4, all of which sounds like a respectable load-out.

We also catch a glimpse of Beats Audio settings in the menu, but there is no Beats branding on the back of the phone, we suspect because this is a pre-release sample. Indeed, the watermarking on the wallpaper reaffirms this, and also means that HTC can probably trace exactly who filmed and leaked the handset - they also reveal a phone number and the device IMEI too…

The HTC Ville is likely to be HTC's "mid-range" device launched at MWC 2012. If rumours are to be believed we will also be seeing a larger Android device, the HTC Edge/Endeavour, but we suspect it will offer a similar operating system to what is on display here.

We will be covering all the action from Mobile World Congress 2012 in February, so be sure to tune in for all the official announcements as they happen.

Chris sits in the Editor’s chair, guiding the good ship Pocket-lint through the tumultuous seas of an ever-changing world of tech. Involved with Pocket-lint from its foundation, he’s best known for his critical eye and throwaway snark.